Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe - The Arthur Awards

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

“When Stuart stepped off his bus and waved goodbye, he thought to himself: 'This guy deserves an award.'”Back by popular demand: it’s the Arthur Awards! You asked, we listened; so today on the pod, we’re delighted to share two of our favourite Arthur Award interviews of all time. Plus we’re reopening the polls for next year’s Arthurs, so start thinking of who you’d like to nominate… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the Apostrophe Podcast Network. Hello, I'm Jess Milton and this is Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe. Welcome. We're going to do something different today on the podcast. If you listened to the Vinyl Cafe back in the day, you'll know that every year on Thanksgiving, and that's Canadian Thanksgiving for those of you listening in the U.S., we do things a bit earlier up here. Our Thanksgiving is in October. We do things a bit earlier up here. Our Thanksgiving is in October. Every year on Thanksgiving weekend, Stuart used to hand out the Vinyl Cafe Arthur Awards. These were a set of awards designed to honor the things that too often go unnoticed.

Because it is, after all, the little things that are often the most important things of all. Let me tell you the backstory. These awards originated in Calgary. Stuart was in Calgary and had to get down to the CBC building. It was a nice autumn day, so he decided to walk. But if you know Calgary, and I know many of you do because you've written in to tell us you're listening in Calgary, if you know Calgary, then you know the weather can change on a dime. So Stuart left for the long walk on an autumn morning, and about two hours in, he found himself

in a snowstorm. Salvation only comes to those who need saving. So I guess he must have looked pretty pathetic that day because salvation did arrive. And it came in the form of an out-of-service City of Calgary bus. The bus driver pulled up and cracked open the door and said, I'm finished for the day, but I can take you downtown if that helps. Stuart climbed on board and started searching through his pockets for the fare. And the driver waved him off and said, no charge. His name was George Wally. And by the time George Wally and Stuart had arrived in the city core, George had stopped his bus to pick up about 20 other stranded souls. When Stuart stepped off his bus and waved goodbye, he thought to himself, this guy deserves an award.

Stuart got home early the next week and he asked me and founding producer David Amer to his house for a meeting. He told us about the bus ride and about George Wally and about the idea of giving him some kind of award. And that is when the Arthur Awards were born. They were born out of Stuart's cold Calgary feet. We struggled with the name. Initially, we went literal. The Small Acts of Kindness Award. That sort of thing.

But that felt too, I don't know, too literal or something. Too on the nose. And it didn't capture the whimsy of these awards. It felt too sentimental and not playful. We saw these awards as kind felt too sentimental and not playful. We saw these awards as kind of funny, sort of quirky. And then someone, David or Stuart, I don't remember who, someone wondered about naming the award after someone. Someone who captured the spirit of the award.

I remember sitting in a chair in Stuart's office and thinking about the feeling we were trying to capture. I was thinking, like, we're looking for someone unassuming, someone loyal, someone a little bit sentimental, but a lot goofy. And that's when I said, what about the Arthur Awards? Arthur the dog. Dave's dog. There was not really an official nomination process. We just asked people to write in and tell us who they thought deserved an award and why. The awards were nominated by you and presented by Stuart. We received hundreds of nominations over the years, thousands probably.

We read them all. We awarded two or three each year on Thanksgiving weekend. We'd go into a studio and call the winners. And sometimes we also called the person who wrote in to nominate them. For the most part, we didn't set it up ahead of time. We'd sometimes tell the nominator, the person who wrote the letter. But for the winners, it was a complete surprise. Stewart would call the winners on the phone and present them with their award. Sometimes they'd know him and the show, but other times, most times, they would have no idea who he was or why he was calling.

He got hung up on all the time, which is like why it was one of my favorite shows of the year, because I took a sick pleasure in watching and listening to people think he was a telemarketer. I just, I really loved it. And he did too. We always let the winner choose their own prize, but really over the years, the Arthurs became less and less about the prize and more and more about the chance to shine the light on these little acts of kindness that too often go unnoticed. So today on the podcast, in celebration of Thanksgiving, we're going to play you a couple of Arthur interviews from years past. And drumroll, please. Oh, that was horrible. Surely to God we can do better than that. Greg, do we have a sound effect? We are also officially opening up our inbox for Arthur nominations for next year.

Yep, we're bringing them back. So many of you have requested this, so I am delighted to tell you how to nominate someone. If you know someone you think deserves an award, we want to hear about it. You can send us an email to vinylcafe at vinylcafe.com. And while you're doing that, listen to this. This one is from back in 2010, a business traveler whose act of kindness made a big difference to a fellow airline passenger. 80-year-old Elsie Clark from Winnipeg was in Texas visiting her daughter.

To get home, Elsie had to fly through Dallas. Now, Elsie has a bad hip. So when she got to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, she asked the staff there to help her to the gate where she was going to board her flight home. The staff took her in a wheelchair, but they took her to the wrong where she was going to board her flight home. The staff took her in a wheelchair, but they took her to the wrong gate and she missed her flight. She got rerouted on a later flight, but this flight went through Chicago.

On that flight, the flight to Chicago, Elsie began to talk with a man across the aisle. His name was Dean Giermeier. During their conversation, Elsie told him what had happened to her that morning, but she also told him that she was worried about making her connection in Chicago. When the plane arrived in Chicago late, Dean helped Elsie get to the gate where she was supposed to connect to Winnipeg, but for the second time that day, Elsie was too late. She missed the flight by 10 minutes. 80-year-old Elsie, who hadn't eaten all day and was exhausted, wasn't able to afford a

cab in a downtown Chicago or a night in a hotel. She told Dean that she was going to spend the night in the airport lounge. Dean Jeremier wouldn't hear of that, so he took Elsie home to his condo to have dinner with his wife. After dinner, he took her to a hotel and got her a room, a suite actually, and then he arranged to have a limousine pick her up the next morning to take her to the airport. He paid for everything, and we think he deserves an Arthur Award. We're going to try and get Dean on the line right now. Hi, this is Dean. Is that Dean Diermeier? Yes, it is. Mask is calling.

It's Stuart McLean speaking from CBC Radio in Canada. Oh, hello, Stuart. I don't know. You probably don't know me. I have a radio show in Canada called The Vinyl Cafe. It sounds great, but I don't know it, but I apologize for that. That's okay. I wouldn't expect you to know it. It's a show where we play music and tell stories, but once a year we do a special edition where we give people, well, we give people awards for acts of kindness, for doing things that normally go unnoticed. And you have been nominated for an award this year.

Oh my, thank you. And you probably know why. Oh my, thank you. And you probably know why. If someone's calling me from Canada, I must refer to my very dear friend Elsie Clark, who's done an amazing job of trying to thank me by getting the story out. First off, I should tell you that it wasn't Elsie that got in touch with us. There were about 12 people from across the country who nominated you for the award. I guess they heard about it or read about it, because I think Elsie got it in some newspapers,

but there are others who have picked up Elsie's torch here. And what you can do for me is just take me back to that plane and tell me, why did you do it? What was it? Do you do stuff like this all the time? you do it? What was it that, do you do stuff like this all the time? Well, I think, just to, you know, frame it up, it was the end of the year, so it's in between Christmas and New Year's. I was coming back from a trip from Dallas, and I was lucky enough to catch an early flight, leaving Dallas to Chicago at 5.30. I was sitting right behind first class in the aisle and as I sat down there was an elderly woman to my left sitting in the aisle just opposite me and she looked pretty exhausted so she was you know pretty tuckered out and

then I started to talk to Elsie and you know she hadn't eaten all day so we talked to the flight attendants and asked them to try to Elsie and you know she hadn't eaten all day so we talked to the flight attendants and asked them to try to get her some food and over the course of an hour and a half flight she let me know she's visiting her daughter and she helped told me the story of sitting at DFW for almost nine hours in a wheelchair and you know she was just she reminded me of my grandmother, to say the least. And when we were, you know, getting ready about 20 minutes or so before we were to land, you know, I said to her, I said, where do you go from here? And I knew she was going to Winnipeg, and she had a connecting flight. And I said, look, let me just help you get to the next gate, because God forbid they do the same thing again to you here in Chicago. So I asked a flight attendant to get a wheelchair arranged,

and I asked them to call for the next flight to hold it in case there would be any delays, but they weren't able to do that. And so I basically said, if you're strong enough to walk, Elsie, why don't you and I walk off a plane? Because normally if you're in a wheelchair, you're the last one off. I said, I'm going to block the aisle. No one's going around me. And we're going to walk off together first. We're going to get you in the wheelchair. We're going to race over to the other gate. And so that was really where I thought, I really thought we were going to make her flight. And I just,

you know, she didn't have anybody. There's no handoff process. And she and I really bonded. And, you know, she just needed someone to look out for a little bit. And then from there, when we got to the other side, there was no, when the flight had already left, the airlines didn't really have the facilities to do anything to help her. And they were just going to send her to a local hotel that she'd have to pay for herself and sort out her own transportation. And, you know, I've been very fortunate in my life, and I've had a very good career. You know, I was going to take a taxi into the city, and I just said to her,

I said, hey, Elsie, you know, we're not leaving you stranded here. This would be like who would leave their grandmother sitting, you know, in an airport all night, lonely, afraid, confused, and just nervous. I just, it didn't even seem like something feasible to do. I would not have been able to sleep all night. And I just said to her, I said, how about you grab dinner at our place and I'll put you up at the hotel next to us and I'll have a, you know, a limo take you back in the morning. And her eyes, she was crying. And I said, it's going to be fine, Elsie. I said, no problem at all. You say that in the moment you couldn't imagine not doing it,

but there's often something that stops us from doing these sort of things in the moment. The impulse might be there, but the execution gets blocked by the little voice inside us that says, this is too much, I'll look silly if I'm, I don't know, if I'm too generous or too kind, or if I do something out of the ordinary. The little voice says, you know, I have to stay within the boundaries of normal behavior. That voice didn't stop you that night in Chicago. Well, and I, you know, when you sit beside someone, I mean, Elsie and I literally talked for probably an hour and a half together. So, you know, I think that, I mean, I'm running

normally 100 miles an hour. Normally on a flight, I'd be doing, you know, 100 emails and going 1,000 miles an hour. But it was the end of the year, and my pace was slowed down. And I felt very lucky that the year had been wrapped up in a good way. I wasn't rushed. So, number one, we connected for a while on the plane. And I think once people make a personal connection or an emotional investment themselves to help, I actually don't think it takes that much to finish where you start, right?

So I never intended that this was going to unfold to where she wouldn't be able to get home. I really wanted to just make sure she got on a flight to Winnipeg. But it didn't feel like a big step to go from there to making sure she was going to be safe and comfortable and not afraid that night. She was going to be safe and comfortable and not afraid that night. And, you know, it took literally like a half an hour of my life. That was it. And I mean, to make sure she got to Chicago, make sure she got to the hotel.

And I actually think a lot of people would do the right thing. I don't think that you had an opportunity. And I actually joke with Elsie. I told Elsie, when we were riding in the taxi that, um, I don't think that if you had an opportunity and I actually joke with Elsie, I told Elsie, I, when we were riding in the taxi into the city, I said, Elsie, you realize, because she was very, you know, she was emotionally pretty upset. And I said, I was trying to lighten the mood. And I said, Elsie, you know, if you weren't a sweetheart, you wouldn't be sitting here. If you were this mean crotchety old lady who was like hitting me with a broom and yelling at everybody, I don't know that I would do this, but you are extremely likable.

And I really want, and I wanted to, you know, she told me a lot about her daughter. I wanted to make sure she was okay for her family. I just, she was a very warm person and had been very good to people, her family and others around her. You just knew that. And she just needed a break. And I, it was, I don't know, it felt like the right thing to do. So. Have you been in touch with Elsie since? You know, it's, it's really cute. We probably talk about every month and a half or so.

You're kidding. And now it's, it's actually, it's turned into a very sweet, you know, I'll check in on her. She'll check in on me. And what was really, really special is, you know, Elsie really wanted to speak to my mother to let her know what I had done. So it was very cute to have, to give Elsie, and Elsie asked you something. She's a pretty fortunate little lady. I shared my parents' phone number and she called my mom and had a good conversation with her. She called your mom and told your mom what a good boy you are? Something along those lines, and it was just quite funny. Dean, it was lovely to talk to you today.

I appreciate your calling, and all the best. Is it the Vinyl Hour? I apologize. No, Vinyl Cafe. Hey, listen, we're on WBEZ Radio every Saturday night at midnight. You can check us out. Okay, absolutely. Well, you don't have to do that. And we do give everybody who gets the award also gets a small prize. And I have a new book out, and also a CD of my stories, a new CD of my stories out. I'd love to, I'll send you a copy of each. And you can. I appreciate that very, very much.

You can check out the show. And I say all the best to the, to the folks up in Canada. All the best to you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. That was Dean Jeremiah of Chicago, Illinois.

I love that one because Dean had no idea who Stuart was. Like I said, this happened all the time on the Arthur. Stuart was hung up on and called nasty names. Don't call here. Never take me off your list. That kind of thing. So many people thought he was a telemarketer, but then we'd meet someone like Dean, someone whose heart is so clearly in the right place. This show, the Arthur Awards, always renewed my faith in the world. All right, we have to take a short break now, but we'll be back in a couple of minutes with another Arthur Award. This one made me laugh out loud, so stick around.

Welcome back. We're playing Arthur Awards today on the show. These are the awards that Stuart used to hand out every year at this time, Thanksgiving. Awards to recognize everyday people for everyday acts of kindness that too often just go unnoticed, you know? another award? I don't think so. But the guy who delivers my newspaper every day, no matter what the weather, no matter how snowy or how icy or how cold or how rainy or how foggy, that guy, he's my hero. And yes, we still get an actual newspaper delivered to our house every day. We love it. Here's another Arthur Award. This is Stuart McLean, recorded in studio back in 2013. I'm Stuart McLean, and this is The Vinyl Cafe, and today is the day that we're handing out our Vinyl Cafe Arthur Awards. We have one more. Our last Arthur Award winner was nominated by four people,

by Judith, Joe, Rosemary, and Gina Quinlan, all who wrote in to nominate their sister, Margaret Davis, of Lake Cowich in British Columbia. Each sister wrote a beautiful nomination letter, and I'm going to read a little bit from a couple of those letters right now. Dear Stuart, and this one is from Joe, Dear Stuart, I would like to nominate my sister, Margaret Davis, for an Arthur Award. Margaret has a most ordinary-looking life. She is retired now and gets up every morning, goes for a walk with her husband, and then gets on with the simple daily tasks of living. But between the spaces of an ordinary life, Margaret quietly gets things done.

She is the glue in social groups. She cares and she gets people to care about each other. She's the backbone in a crisis. People rely on her and she supports people where there is space to do that. And she is a workhorse, putting her head down and doing what needs to be done. Now that's from Sister Jo. Her sister Judith wrote and said, Margaret is the number one supporter of everyone in our family. When any of us is embarking on a new challenge, Margaret joins in and encourages us. Even when we screw up big time, Margaret doesn't judge harshly

and usually finds a way to put a positive spin on things. She has been the person I go to whenever my life falls to pieces, and I think I don't give back nearly enough to make up for all that she has done for me. That was Judith. That was Judith. Her sister also added, So many times important people are recognized for the extraordinary things they do. And yet in my life, it's always been the ordinary people who've had the greatest influence and touched me deep in my heart. Margaret would say that she's just an ordinary person.

But I know she's made a profound difference in so many other ordinary people's lives. So I think the Arthur Award might be perfect for recognizing an extraordinary, ordinary person like my sister, Marg. Those are excerpts that came in from Joe, Judith, Rosemary, and Gina Quinlan, who wrote in to nominate their sister, Margaret Davis of Lake Cowichan, British Columbia for an Arthur Award, and we're going to give her one in the category of Recognizing the Importance of Connection.

And Joe, Judith, and Rosemary Quinlan are standing by right now. We told them we might be calling. We told them, we actually told them they were on the short list. We want to know we could get them all together at one time, and we're going to give them a call. Jess? I think they're standing by. Hello? Hi.

Hi. Who's that? This is Judith. Judith Quinlan? Yeah. It's Stuart McLean speaking from CBC Radio, Vinyl Cafe. Oh, this is so exciting. You know why I'm phoning, then?

Yes, we do. I'm calling to talk to you about your sister, Margaret. Mm-hmm. So tell me about Margaret. Well, like I said in my email, Margaret's kind of the glue that holds our family together. She's like the hub of the wheel, the go-to person. And I kind of thought, you know, most families have a Margaret. You know, most communities have a Margaret, somebody who kind of, you know,

knows when everyone's birthday is, and we all go to her house when there are events. So I just thought it was important to honor the Margarets of the world. And that's why we're going to give Margaret an award. Oh, that's so exciting. When are you going to give it to her? Well, right now. We'll do it right now. Well, we want to be there. What do you mean? I don't quite understand what you mean. Well, I don't know if you want to talk to her.

There were, like, all her sisters and her brother and her son and daughter all wrote letters nominating her. So wait a minute. How far away are you? Five minutes. We're at my sister's house, who lives in the same town. And you've got how many people with you now? One, two, three, four, five, six of us. We can all pile into my car. Have you got a cell phone? Yes, we're on a cell phone right now. Okay, we could do, I think... Jess, can we do this? So we... Okay. But who's... Just give me the list of who's there.

You're there? Okay, I'm here. My sister Gina is here. My sister Joanne is here. My sister Rosemary is here. And my niece Elsa. Okay, and you're all... And any or all of them are quite willing to talk with you

Okay, well, away you go then Pass me, give me to somebody and away we go Who would you like to talk to first? Gina's going to be going probably in a separate car Would you like to talk to Gina? She's the youngest of the siblings Sure, I'll talk to Gina Okay, who's Gina?

Hello? Gina? Hi I just want to talk to Gina. Okay, here's Gina. Hello? Gina? Hi. I just want to talk to you before you get in the car. Okay. You're the youngest of the siblings. How old are you? The youngest and the shyest. I'm 51. Okay. Just tell me a little something about Margaret.

She's just really generous. She's kind. She does things for other people all the time. Are you still there? I'm still here yeah i'm just i'm just being swept up by the quinlan family how much older is she than you are than you um how old is she she's she's 66 so she's uh 15 years older than you 15 years older than me yeah okay listen we we don't have a lot of time here, so you guys better get, let's get going. Okay, I'll give you back to Judith. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, we're all old ladies now. Well. So, I'm in the car, I'm just getting into the driver's seat, and I'm going to pass the phone over to my sister Joanne. Okay. Here we go. Hi, Stuart.

Hi, Jo. How are you? I'm very well, thank you. You're in the front or the back? I'm in the front. Okay, excellent. Is your seatbelt done up? It's done up, and we're ready to go. Everyone's got their belts on, and we've got the casseroles in the back. What are you talking about, the casseroles in the back?

Because we're dropping in on her, we're going to stay for a while. Uh-huh. So this is going to be a party. Who cooked the casseroles? Oh, I brought a quinoa casserole, and my other sister's got a vegetarian chili. So, yeah, we've got some buns and some salad, and we're going to have a great old time. You guys. Okay, well, tell me about your sister. Oh, my sister. Well, you've heard all kinds of stuff about her already. Hold on, before you tell me, is the car actually moving? This is beginning to feel like a moon landing to me

that's not really happening. Are you faking this? No, no, no, no is the car actually moving? This is beginning to feel like a moon landing to me that's not really happening. Are you faking this? No, no, no, no. The car's moving. We're going around a traffic circle right as we speak. Okay. Oh, she just slammed on the brake. Was that realistic enough?

Okay. So what do you want to tell me? Well, let me see. Marg, several years ago, I was dealing with some health challenges, and Marg was the one who came to me and worked out a plan with diet and exercise and all kinds of stuff around my health, and offered to do it with me. And her fear was that I wasn't going to live to see my children grow up. Did she just come out of the blue one day and say, I want to talk to you about this? Yeah, she did.

She came with, she's an organizer, so she came with books and recipes and plans and all sorts of stuff. And she and I have been doing it since. We've been having a lot of fun. We eat vegan now. We go in 10Ks. We do all kinds of things. And that was her. You had to lose weight?

Oh, lots. How much did you lose? 80 pounds. You're kidding. No, no. So I still struggle. I still go up and down with it and struggle with it a little bit. But I always know that she's there along with me.

You know, she never had a weight problem, but she stepped in and that's who she is. She's there for you and she lets you know you're not on your own. You felt supported. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, and that's the kind of person that Mark is. Who else is in the car? Well, we've got my sister Rosemary and my daughter Elsa.

Let me talk to Rosemary. Okay, one second. Hi, Stuart. Hi, Rosemary. How are you? I'm good, thank you. How are you? I'm fine. Are you getting close? Yes, we're just at the end of her driveway now. Okay, well, just hold on for a minute.

Don't go in yet, then. Pull over. Just pull over for a second. We have pulled over. Okay, good. So tell me about your sister. Okay, so pretty well to echo what everyone else has said. Mark is always thinking of everyone other than herself, it seems.

For example, this year, she actually won the Ducky Derby. She got second place in the Lake Cowichan Ducky Derby. So Marg won second prize, and she got $500 for that. But she's bought tickets every year, and it's for charity. She's always bought tickets for herself and for everyone else in the family, so she deserved to win it. When she went to pick up the prize, they handed her the money, and she actually handed some back for the charity.

So, I mean, that's the kind of person she is. Always when she gets something, she'll think, well, how can I share that with other people? And I think, you know, that's really amazing because if it was me, I probably would have gone and treated myself with something. So, yeah. So she's a good inspiration for all of us, and she's a good role model. And she's always there when we need her. So are you there now? Just where exactly are you right now?

Okay, we're right outside her driveway. So should we go? So what are we going to do here? We'll go... I'll hand the phone to Judith. She's sort of got the game plan here. Okay. Here we go.

Whose radio show is this? Judith? Yes? Are you there? Yes. Okay, you're there. Is everybody around the car? Everybody's gathered around the car.

We're near her front door, but she hasn't seen we're here yet. Okay, here's what I want you to do. Just hold on a second. I'm going to get Jess to phone her so that we can tell her she's won the award, and I want to do that just as you guys arrive. So maybe if you can

tell me when she's won the award, and I want to do that just as you guys arrive. So maybe if you can tell me when she's coming to the door on your end, I'll get Jess to phone her on her end, and we'll make this happen. And you can kind of be Foster Hewitt here. You do the play-by-play as we're making this happen. Well, we're approaching the door. Everybody get to the door. Okay, and just before you ring the doorbell, tell me, and I'll get Jess to phone her. All right, we're going to ring the doorbell right now. Okay, Jess, do the phone call. There's the door. Okay. And just before you ring the doorbell, tell me and I'll get Jess to phone her. Alright. We're going to ring the doorbell right now. Okay, Jess, do the phone call. There's the doorbell. Okay. And the knock. Okay. We're at the door.

We hope Margaret's home. I hope Margaret's home, too. Oh, here she is. Oh, Margaret, she's looking very confused. She wants to know what's going on. We're all just walking in the door. Phone. Okay, Jess is phoning right now. The phone is ringing right now. Oh, your phone, Margaret. Yeah, your phone.

She looks totally confused. Going to the phone. We're all just walking in. Hello? Hello? Margaret? Yes? It's Stuart McLean speaking from CBC Radio, the Vinyl Cafe. What?

Do you know my show? Of course I do. I listen every week. Well, then you know that every year at this time we have a special show called the Arthur Awards where we give people awards for small, ordinary, unusual things. And this year, you have been nominated and are going to receive an Arthur Award. For what? Well...

I can't even imagine. You've been nominated by your sisters for being... Yeah, but they've all just walked in the door here. And they've nominated you for recognizing the importance of connection, for all of the small things that you do for them and have done for them, and for all of the other people that you know in and around Lake Cowichan. Oh, my goodness. I feel very undeserving of this.

Well your sisters say you're the glue that holds the family together. Oh that's very sweet of them. I'm just the oldest, that's all, and the bossiest. I just tell them all what to do. What are your sisters doing back there? I hear them rummaging around. Oh, I see they've taken over my kitchen here. So they're all, like, cooking things and trying to figure out the microwave, and they turned down the radio, and they've just sort of taken over, you know?

Talk to me about family for a moment. Yeah, well, it's really important, right? I mean, I have a lot of friends, too, and they're very important, but family is the most important, because they've known you forever. Your sisters have all told me today what you've done for them. What have they done for you? Oh, as much. I mean, look at this. Here they are here today doing this and nominating me for this. It's amazing. I'm really touched by it.

They also mentioned, before we go, I should also say, they mentioned, someone mentioned earlier on in the conversation, way back when we were over at Judith's house, when we started, that every family has a Margaret. Every family has somebody like you. Yeah, I'm sure that's true. And that they wanted to nominate you sort of for all of the Margarets that there are. That's lovely. So thank you for standing in for everybody who stands up for their family and friends when there are hard times. And I guess I think they were trying to thank you

for doing the heavy lifting, and by way of thanking you, thanking everybody for the heavy lifting, and by way of thanking you, thanking everybody for the heavy lifting they, or we do, all of us from time to time. Well, it's an honor to accept this on behalf of all families. Yeah, I feel better about that. Listen, we always give the winners a prize. In your case, I feel like we should give the whole family a prize. I think so. I think the whole family deserves it.

Listen, we're coming to Victoria. How far are you from Victoria? About an hour away. We'll be in Victoria at the end of November doing the Christmas show. Do you want to all come down to the show together? I'd love to. Yes, that would be fabulous. Okay, well, I'll get Jess to organize tickets

for a whole lot of you. You can pile into Judah's car. Margaret's car. We'll pile into whatever car you want. I usually drive. Of course you do. Well, you can all pile into a car and come down and come backstage and say hi to me,

and we can all get to... Oh, my goodness, that would be wonderful. 27th or 28th of November, Jessel at the Royal Theatre. Jessel will organize it with you. Thank you so much, Stuart. It was really nice talking to you and your sisters. Tell them they're

all crazy. Well, we know that. Thank you very much, Stuart. Too bad you're so far away, because the party's just starting. Well, I expect a casserole at the show at the end of November. One of those quinoa casseroles. It's a deal. We'll look forward to meeting you then. Thanks so much, Margaret. Thank you. Very best. Thank you. You too. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye.

Bye-bye. That was Margaret Davis and her assorted sisters in Lake Cowich in British Columbia. That was Stuart and the Quinlan family. Doesn't that just make you happy? It makes me happy. I hope it makes you happy too. Do you have somebody in your life like that? Do you have someone that just deserves a shout out, that deserves an award, someone you'd like to honor, someone you'd like to thank? We want to hear about them. Next year's Arthur Awards are officially open now. Send us a note. Tell us who you think

deserves an Arthur Award and why. You can write to us at VinylCafe at VinylCafe.com or just head over to our website and write us there, which is VinylCafe.com. Okay, while you do that, we'll take a quick break, but we'll all gather back here in a minute or so with a sneak peek from next week's show. So, go! That's it for today. We'll be back here next week with two Dave and Morley stories, including this one. This is one of my all-time favorite stories. It's the one where Dave loses his favorite shirt.

He looks everywhere for it. And then one day, a year later, his neighbor Jim Schofield shows up for dinner wearing the missing shirt. I'm going to steal it back, he said. And then you know what I'm going to do with it? I'm going to wear it over to his house. Morley said, well, why don't you just ask him about the shirt? This is much better, said Dave, running inside. about the shirt. This is much better, said Dave, running inside. That's next week on the podcast. Come back next Friday to hear the whole story. Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe is part of the Apostrophe Podcast Network. Greg DeCloot is our recording engineer,

who himself is kind of dog-like in nature. Kind, loyal, fond of biscuits and beef. Theme music is by my pal Danny Michelle. The show is produced by Louise Curtis and me, Jess Milton. Let's meet again next week. Until then, so long for now.